


One Robin, Two Robins, Three Robins, More!

by inheritanceofgeek



Series: Reconciliation [4]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: (kind of), But as always with New 52 Elements because I'm weak to some stuff, Cosplay, Crack, Dating, Dress Up, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-12 07:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17462810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inheritanceofgeek/pseuds/inheritanceofgeek
Summary: Stephanie and Tim decide to give dating another shot, and attend their second-first date together. But the more things change, the more things stay the same!





	One Robin, Two Robins, Three Robins, More!

**Author's Note:**

> So, I knew that I wanted Tim and Stephanie to dress up as Robin and Spoiler, because their first canonical date is completely adorable. But I wasn't sure exactly what they should be going, then I remembered the events of Batman Rebirth #37, and you know, what is the point of FanFic if you can't shamelessly rip-off canon? 
> 
> Unbeated.

They'd finally agreed on what to do for a first date, or rather, Tim agreed to let Stephanie take the lead. Which included letting her pick the wardrobe. He was really, really not convinced. “This isn't even a shop-bought one! This is just some green leggings and a red T-Shirt with Sharpie, and oh my god these are just washing up gloves!” he yelled from the bedroom, whilst she patiently waited in the living room. It made more sense to meet up at his apartment, since Steph wasn't entirely ready to tell her Mom they were dating again. It was a bit too much to explain, as of right now.

“Would you rather I got you the scaly green panties?”

“No, I'm good thanks. And don't you dare make any sexual comments on that!” he added quickly “Dick and Jason are still my brothers. I am not dressing up as them for any weird sexual fantasy you might have.”

“I am insulted that you would even think of it!” she called back. He could just see her snarky grin. God save him for loving that girl. He continued to obediently put on the stupid outfit that she'd clearly gone to at least some effort to make. The T-Shirt did have green sleeves sewn on, and the black Cape even had a yellow lining. He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked… ridiculous. But probably not more ridiculous than he had at age 14.

“You finished yet?” She shouted through the door. Tim sighed and resigned himself to his fate. Next time, he was picking the outfit. She was sitting on the sofa, waiting for him, and he was shocked to see that she too had changed from the casual jeans and T-Shirt she'd arrived in. She was now wearing a purple lycra bodysuit, a blue ski mask, and what looked like a couple of purple bed sheets wrapped around her neck.

“I thought we agreed to leave Spoiler and Robin behind?” He frowned, taking her in. It was weird seeing her in her original outfit, or rather, a $20 approximation of the suit. No offence to her, but Spoiler hadn't exactly been popular enough for shops to stock her merchandise. But still, it wasn't that bad a look. The lycra showed off her new curves in delightful detail, in a way the Batgirl suit, with all its padding and armour simply couldn't. She clocked him admiring her and did a little twirl to show off the rest.

“Now come here Robin, and let me sort out the finishing touches!” He let her adjust the cheap elasticated domino mask so it was a bit more even and tried his hardest not to pout as she grabbed a comb and re-did his hair to resemble the awful curtains he'd had as a kid.

“Why are we doing this Stephanie?”

“Because you're all cute when you pout.” she squished his cheeks together “And also, okay, so, my original plan was to just go to the movies! Not like this, obviously, just in our usual civies. But then I heard this girl in my psych class talking about the fair that's pulled up in town! And they're doing a 'Superhero’ night, where everyone in costume gets in free, so I thought, hey? Why not! Our first date was in costume, and it went pretty great. Until I found out I was pregnant of course, but don't worry, I had my period last week, so that is totally not gonna a problem this time around. Come on! We'll be late!”

“Late? For what?” asked Tim, who by about the third sentence had just accepted that this was going to be another one of those Stephanie Brown Adventures. “It's only six, the fair's probably gonna be open until midnight.”

“ _But_ , we'll be late for the look-a-like contest!” she said merrily tugging him along, “Come on, the Lyft is outside waiting for us. Chop chop Boy Wonder!”

“Stephanie, did you enter us in a look-a-like contest.” said Tim, anger and amusement mingling inside him in the way only she could cause.

“No! I only entered _you_ in a look-a-like contest. It's going to be so hilarious when you lose!”

Their driver seemed convinced by their outfits at least, or rather, she pretended to be for their own amusement. She recognised him from the tabloids, which was at least better than being recognised by last night's news footage. It still meant that she'd insisted on getting a picture of Tim Wayne and his date in costume. He really, really hoped that Jason wouldn't get a hold of it, but that seemed entirely unlikely, since he spied her tagging the official Wayne Enterprises Twitter account in it. Great. He'd have to explain that one in the morning.

The people on the door were dressed as the Wonder Twins, although they looked nothing alike. 'Jayna’ was currently having an argument with a guy dressed as Batman about whether he counted as a Superhero or not. Tim had to privately agree, they weren't Superheros, they were vigilantes! There was a clear difference. If she won the debate, then maybe they could get out of here and go on a proper date! However, 'Zan’ seemed already exhausted by it, and just waved them through.

Tim had to admit, it was rather a lot of fun, seeing everyone dressed as various heroes. Nobody had anything exact, most in shop-bought outfits or ones that had been cobbled together like theirs. The serious cosplayer seemed to not want to risk their hard work around rollercoasters and cotton candy.

Stephanie was having the time of her life it seemed. Every five seconds she would grab his arm and point excitedly at someone she recognised. There was a plethora of Batmans, Wonder Womans and Supermans, but a smattering of fellow Titans and one of every flash. Stephanie had practically torn his arm off when she spotted a family of them! Two Dads as Jay and Barry, and their kids (the oldest around 10, and the youngest 5) as Wally and Bart. They gladly stopped for a photo when Stephanie asked, and Tim couldn't resist sharing it in the ‘Bat Chat’ WhatsApp group. It took all of five seconds for Dick to respond with an array of emojis, followed by a screen grab of Wally's equally excited reaction.  

Despite Stephanie's previous insistence that they were going to be late to the main-stage, she still insisted on stopping and getting photos with every Batgirl she saw, no matter the variation. He was almost hoping that she'd have forgotten… but apparently not, as they arrived just in time. She dragged him over to confirm his sign up, and Tim stood there awkwardly, as an array of other Robins stood around him. Some with black hoods and plastic scimitars, others with green pixie boots and homemade batarangs.

“And what performance will you be doing?” asked the sign up guy, already sounding bored. He was dressed as Red Tornado, which really added to the look.

Tim turned to look at Stephenie in abject horror. _Perform_. Oh no, oh this was the final straw, no, no way. But Steph looked a little panicked too.

“Errr, I didn't think, oh God, I didn't know it was going to be that kind of look-alike contest! Maybe we shouldn't, Sorry Tim, I didn't--” she was so flustered, that now he really didn't have a choice but to get up there and sacrifice his dignity.

“I'll be doing some martial arts demonstrations.”

Stephanie looked over at him with wide eyes. “Tim, are you sure?” The guy looked back at them with a glazed expression.

“I have other people to book in. You guys entering or not? Entry fee is non-refundable.”

“Yes, martial arts. Definitely.” he squeezed her gloved hand, and her panicked breathing calmed down a notch.

“Sorry!” she repeated, I just thought they'd make you all go up on stage and walk around a bit. I didn't realise…”

“How much did you pay for me to do this?” he asked, he knew Steph was a student. She didn't have a lot of money.

“Errrr, $20?” she said sheepishly “I thought it would be funny?”

“You paid $20 so as I would go up there and look ridiculous for everyone to see, and possibly also make Wayne Enterprises loose stock price for bad publicity in actions unbecoming a CEO?”

“Something like that, yeah…” she said slowly “This is one of those times where I don't think things through properly, isn't it?”

“Yes, but you do 'not thinking things through’ so well that I don't even mind.” he pecked her on her forehead “What's the prize for this even?”

“I think it's $50 for first and then down from there? Fourth place is a gift certificate for that restaurant on the corner of Dixon and Johnson! Aim for that. Then we have somewhere to go next time!”

“You realise that I'm rich, like, super rich. You don't have to worry about needing gift certificates, Steph.”

“Yeah, but free food always tastes so much better.” She sighed, wistfully, “now go and win us that Gift Certificate Tiger!” she cried, slapping him on the butt as he got ushered off to the side of the stage where they were gathering all the other assembled Robins. Was that a Stephanie Robin he saw? Well, he hoped that she won now or else he'd never hear the end of it. He took a general moment to size up the rest of the competition. Most of the costumes were a bit better made than his (sorry Steph) but nobody looked particularly competitive, and he could pretty much guarantee actually looking the most like himself _physically_.

A lot of people seemed to be doing attempts at martial arts, often resulting in people landing flat on their arses. _God_ he hoped Steph was getting video of this so he could send it to Dick and Jason. A guy dressed as Damian had actually done some knife throwing, which was concerning given how bad he was at it.

When it was his turn to go on he reached to his 'utility belt’ (read: fanny pack) and pulled out his real-actual bo staff, he clicked it open as dramatically as he could, and did a quick demo for the assembled crowd. Most of whom were drunk or high on sugar, so we're easily swayed by a guy being able to throw stuff in the air and catch it. He took a bow at the end of it, blew a kiss to Steph, and left the stage. There, he had sacrificed himself on the altar of dignity, there could be nothing left to ask of him.

He thought he'd done a pretty good job, to be honest. He'd not done anything too complicated, so as not to give the game away, but he'd at least demonstrated an intermediate level of skill. Everyone knew the Waynes had self-defence training, and he'd not _always_ been a Wayne, so it wasn't impossible that he didn't have previous training that no one knew about.

He was pretty confident in himself, until Girl Wonder came on and put everyone to shame. She did a series of complicated gymnastic moves one after the other, all leading into a fluid motion, and then twisted in mid air to throw three batarangs at the target, each hitting the dead centre.

To no one's surprise, it was Stephanie who cheered the loudest for her. No bias shown there then.

In the end, Tim had come in fifth, missing out on the prized Gift Certificate, which had been won by the Jason!Robin who had slipped on his own Cape and nearly knocked himself out on the hard floor.

“Did you _see_ her!” gasped Steph, who apparently no longer cared about the free food or teasing Tim. “She was me! She dressed as _me_ ! I didn't think anyone would remember me, but, but she was _me_ ! And she _WON_!”

“Yes, but maybe don't talk so loudly about it? Secret Identity and all?”

“Hey, when you only have one form of representation in a group of Robins this size, I am well within my rights to self-identify as her. _Whoever_ that Girl Wonder was, she sure did so much for the people of Gotham, and should be remembered as the mightiest of Robins!”

Tim just shook his head, but didn't argue. Especially when she managed to get a picture with the girl later and immediately changed it to her profile picture. Great, now Batgirl's profile picture was of the fourth Robin and Spoiler. Bruce was going to just _love_ that.

They continued to wander around the fair for a bit more, taking part in the _clearly fixed_ games, and trying to win each other more and more ridiculous prizes. Though Stephanie did seem particularly pleased with her giant purple bunny rabbit.

“I shall call him Bat Bun!” She declared, holding him up like Simba. “And he shall protect the city of Gotham thanks to his combined powers of both Bat and Bunny!”

“And what sort of powers are those?” asked Tim, holding onto the Super Boy plushie she'd won for him. He was never going to hear the end of it.

“Ah-ha! Robin, my young protege! Soon in time you too will learn the ways of the Bun! But for now, come we must fly! The Bun signal is in the sky!” She booped Tim on the nose with Bat Bun's paw and ran off towards the Ferris Wheel which was, indeed, projecting the Bat Signal into the sky. There really ought to be laws about that… but then again technically the Bat Signal didn't legally exist. So what rules could you even make against it?

The Ferris Wheel would probably count as one of the highlights of Tim's night though. For a lot of people, it was their only chance to really see Gotham from up high, and marvel at its hidden beauty. But for Tim, it provided a perfect moment to hold Steph close, and peel her mask up halfway and kiss her. Just as they'd done countless times as teenagers. The cart swung a little as they kissed, but wasn't that part of the fun of making out on these things? It was a romantic classic that neither of them had ever gotten to experience. They kept it pretty chaste throughout, aware that they were in public still, and you never knew who could be pointing a camera their way. Still, it was amazing how new this all felt, considering how long the pair of them had been doing this dance. Trust Stephanie Brown to always be finding new ways to knock him off his feet.

“Hey look!” grinned Tim, pointing at someone who was just now queueing up for the ride they'd just got off of. “He's me! That's err, that's to say he's Red Robin!”

Steph looked over at where he was pointing. “Nope, pretty sure that's Dr. Mid-Nite.”

“Shut up, that is totally Red Robin! He's wearing a black cape! Mid-Nite wears a green one.”

“Sorry Tim, I just don't see your point. Oh, oh no look, he's making out with that Super Boy. I stand corrected, definitely Red Robin. You want to get a photo?”

Tim rolled his eyes. Honestly? Yes. Yes he did want to get a photo because in the sea of Impulses and Wonder Girls, he'd not seen a single Red Robin. But he also knew that he would never hear the end of it if he did. Steph took out her phone and grabbed a pic of them though, shoving his side playfully.

“Oh my GOD! It's Spoiler and Robin!” cried a high-pitched voice, and the pair turned around, immediately on the defensive. But the person running towards them was just a ‘Supergirl’, dragging along her ‘Batgirl’ Girlfriend, who, much like Tim, looked as though she had grown accustomed to this kind of nonsense.

“Sorry,” said the girl, rather breathless “It's just, wow! You don't see any Spoiler cosplayers around these days and, and here you are with Robin 3.0! Oh man, I used to ship you two, _so_ hard!”

Tim looked wild eyed at this. He wasn't entirely sure he knew what was happening right now, but Steph was looking like all her Christmases had come at once. ‘Batgirl’ looked apologetically at Tim and mouthed an ‘I'm sorry, she's just like this.’  

“I mean,” continued ‘Supergirl’ showing no signs of ever stopping “When I was like, fourteen, I saw them making out on a rooftop, and no one at school would believe me because I didn't have a proper phone then, no zoom at all. But those costume colours really stood out! What was even with that? Anyway, I sat back and was like 'oh man! I bet those two would make the cutest couple!’, and I've been hooked since then. I know that Spoiler’s always disappearing, but that just means that she's always coming back you know?” the two of them just made agreeing noises as they let the girl continue, Tim feeling particularly horrified at the glee on Steph's face

“Personally, I think _she's_ the new Batgirl” she pointed at her girlfriend, who was, indeed wearing Steph's costume “and she's totally dating Supergirl. Suzie and me are all about that couples  cosplay, aren't we babe? But I want you to know, that I am fully in support of this ship you got going on here. Oh, I used to write so much fanfic for them, urgh, don’t you just love and hate rare pairs all at once? Are you two an actual couple? Oh my god is this couples cosplay _too?_ Can I get a photo?!”

She at last paused holding up her phone, and looking excitedly at them. “Kira, babe,” said her girlfriend, gently tugging on her elbow “I think it's time we leave the nice people alone. They don't want to know all your fan--”

“No!” Cried Steph, also grabbing the girls arm “No, this is totally amazing and awesome! I didn't think that anyone would remember… Spoiler! She was my favourite as a kid! I just, I so wanted to be her, you know?”

“Same!” Squealed Kira, jumping up and down with Stephanie. This was a whole new kind of narcissism right here. “So, photo?” she asked again.

“Definitely! But I want one of you two as well.” said Steph, pointing back at the girls. Suzie and Tim both signed and shared a look of deep, spiritual understanding.  

Suzie was unceremoniously handed over everyone's stuff so they could take the photo. Which apparently involved taking several shots, and not just one of them standing next to each other. Steph insisted on Kira getting shots of them kissing as well, and of them fighting, and then she wanted them to re-create a meme? Where her and Tim were holding hands? And then Steph was looking behind at Suzie as she walked in the opposite direction? Tim had no idea how he was meant to feel about any of this. Least of all when the whole palava was repeated with Suzie and Kira, or rather, Batgirl and Supergirl. This time with Tim being handed all their stuff whilst they snapped a billion more and more awkward photos. What did it mean that his girlfriend was taking pictures of herself and her best friend making out?

He decided it was best not to think on it too much. The pair excitedly exchanged details afterwards, chattering away about fanfic and favourite BatFan websites? There was an app maybe? Tim didn't even want to think about it, but it might be an idea to put a call out to Oracle to be on the watch for stuff.

“So, you're the normal one too?” asked Suzie at last.

“It would seem so.” he replied, nodding in turn with her. “Does she, do this often?”

“Oh yeah,” she replied, matter of factly “She's been stopping couples all evening. Batman and Superman, Nightwing and Aqualad, Raven and Starfire. Did you see the family of Flashes? They at least were adorable.”

“Oh yeah! We saw them when we came in, too cute for words. My brother, and his, err, let’s say platonic life partner, they're big flash fans. Probably the biggest in the world, actually, and they both lost their shit when we sent them a photo.”  

“Yeah, it was especially wholesome. There's a whole group cosplay of the OG Titans around somewhere. Worth checking out before Beast Boy's makeup melts off. Anyway, be seeing you Robin.” She saluted, as Kira and Steph finally finished.

“Err, in a while, Batgirl” he replied, waving her off.

“They were such a nice couple,” sighed Steph, looping their arms together. “We should totally go on a double date together in the future.”

“Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet, okay?” said Tim, leaning into her side slightly. They continued like that, arm in arm as they tried out all the other rides, but mostly they just enjoyed spending time together, getting to talk about things that weren't connected to crimes or weapon techniques or whatever the latest Bat Family Drama was. It felt like being a real couple for a change.

The fair ended at midnight, and Steph insisted they take another Lyft home, instead of calling one of the Wayne cars to come get them. She refused to let him pay her back too. Apparently this was her date night, and if he wanted to pay then be would have to ask _her_ out. It all seemed rather trivial, but the trivial always seemed so much more fun when Steph was involved.

He dropped her off at her house though, standing behind the tree in her garden like they were proper teenagers. They could easily have flipped up onto the rooftop for a more private discussion, but tonight was meant to be about being normal for once.

“Hey,” said Tim lifting up Steph's chin “thanks for the night.”

“You enjoyed it?” asked Steph, smiling up at him “It wasn't, too much? Too silly?”

“Na, I could use some more silly in my life.” he bent down to give her another light kiss on the lips. Steph hummed contentedly.

“Good. Because I don't think I know how to date someone without things being silly. Can't go about getting serious about each other, if we're always going on boring dates to fancy restaurants.” She sighed, tugging at his jacket “I should go, Mom'll probably be staying up worrying that I've been attacked by my date. Or, run off to have unprotected sex. Or killed them and hidden the body.”

“Are those all options for next time?”

“None of those are options for next time.” she poked him in the chest, but gave him a kiss anyway. “Night, get home safe, Boy Wonder.”

“Sleep well, Spoiler.” he waved as he watched her slip inside the house through the front door for a change.

He walked back down the road, and came across a familiar swing set in a grubby playground. He took a moment to look around. Nobody was watching… he took a running leap and swung all the way around the top bar, laughing as he did so.

It had been an absolutely perfect night, and maybe this time, maybe this time things would work out alright. Fourth time's the charm, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoyed this? Let me know via Kudos/Comments or on Tumblr where I'm Mrsmarymorstan.


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